I love fish. Wait, I think I’ve confessed that before. I fight the adoration and strive to diversify my designs and projects, but deep in my heart I would love little fish and nautical touches to surround me in every room. So, when it came to decorating my son’s big boy bedroom, I chose a coastal approach to the design. But to be budget-minded, I used two IKEA RAST dressers and chalkboard contact paper.

For these simple dresser drawer labels, I bought chalkboard contact paper in large sheets (Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk sell it). I then used a pencil on the grid-printed backing and did freehand drawings of classic fish shapes before cutting the contact paper sheets.

I peeled one edge apart to separate the backing paper from the contact paper, this can be tricky.

I carefully applied each fish cutout to clean and dry drawer fronts in my son’s bedroom, starting at one side’s edge and working to the other. I alternated the fish shapes and direction for variety, but can switch them around because the drawers can be rearranged within the six slots of the two dressers. I love how the unfinished wood grain works with the chalkboard fish since they share an outdoorsy feel.

Going from side-to-side, I used a clip-free pen to roll over it as I went to prevent bubbles. In spite of the wood dresser fronts being unfinished (I didn’t even sand them first), the chalkboard contact paper stuck nicely and allowed for a little adjustment as well. Really delighted with how straight-forward it was to apply contact paper to the RAST.

I love knitting, sewing, baking, and upcycling, making things with my sons. Originally hailing from the Washington DC area, I reside in Cork, Ireland. Read more of what I've written and my work in content marketing here.